Investigators traveled to Florida on Sunday to continue investigation
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Investigators flew to Florida yesterday to continue their investigation into a plane crash off South Bimini over a week ago that injured an American pilot and killed his son.
The aircraft took off from South Bimini International Airport en route to Opa-Locka, Florida, but the plane crashed in shallow waters shortly after takeoff.
Andre Wade, 59, was injured in the crash and required hospitalization, while his son, Kyle, 20, who had recently received his pilot’s license, died.
Air Accident and Investigation Authority (AAIA) Chief Investigator Delvin Major told Eyewitness News: “We are here in the US because we don’t have a facility in The Bahamas that can do the type of work and also because the work that has to be done is in collaboration with representatives of the manufacturers of the engine, as well as the aircraft.
“At this time, because of COVID, they’re not allowing their personnel to travel internationally. But we have a facility in Fort Pierce, Florida, where we take all of our wrecks to do a further analysis.”
According to Major, it has been determined that all parts of the aircraft were accounted for at the crash site, ruling out a mid-air breakup.
He said manufacturers will review the aircraft engines to determine whether there was a mechanical problem, while the aircraft manufactures will review other critical parts of the aircraft over the next three days.
The chief investigator said: “We try to rule out whether the pilot’s physiological or mental or substances may have contributed; we try to rule out or see if the engines were at fault or the airframe was at fault. So, we leave no stone unturned.”
According to Major, the pilot was unable to recall the events up to the point of the crash as he had lost consciousness, and could only remember being rescued.
“The reason why we have to do such a detailed examination and analysis is because the pilot wasn’t able to give us any indication as to what happened,” Major said.
“Had he been able to tell us ‘well, I did this and that happened or I didn’t do this, and this may have happened’, then we would have a better idea of what contributed to the accident.
“Understandably, he did hit his head during the crash sequence and he was not able to remember pretty much anything that happened.
“…It falls on us as investigators to try and fill in the gaps as to what may have happened — did the engine lose power; did one of the control surfaces get jammed — any number of things could have happened to the control surfaces or to the engines.”
He said medical experts took and sent samples abroad of the pilot’s blood to be tested for any substances or any other medical condition.
“We are also at this stage looking at the pilot’s overall well-being as far as taking samples for further analysis to rule out any kind of substances, whether it’s or could be alcohol, over the counter drugs — any kind of thing, we try to rule out.”
Those samples will be sent to the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in Oklahoma City.
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